In an exclusive interview with WWJ’s City Beat Reporter Vickie Thomas, Kilpatrick maintained his innocence on federal racketeering charges and reacted to that plea deal cut with the feds by his former friend and top aide Derrick Miller.

“I have to say it’s something that I expected,” Kilpatrick said. “I haven’t had a serious conversation with Derrick since 2006.”

“I know. You write in the book that you guys went your separate ways,” Vickie responded. “Was that painful?”

“It was very painful,” Kilpatrick answered. “I mean I really never knew what Derrick was up to or what he was doing. But my heart still goes out to him and his wife and his child. I mean, the pressure that this prosecutor’s office is putting on people to say whatever they want ’em to say is profound.”

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Kilpatrick will be at Citadel of Praise Church to talk about his book Surrendered: The Rise, Fall and Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick. The former mayor said he’ll be talking about the process of healing and forgiveness.

“The best way for us to move forward is for us to forgive each other and do it. And I hope that the citizens, and I know people in the WWJ audience are going to be mad when I say that, but you got to, got to let it go,” Kilpatrick said.

Thomas said she read Kilpatrick’s book cover-to-cover, including a section in which Kilpatrick talked about Christine Beatty’s health scare and the toll the job took on other members of his team.

“You reveal that she had cancer,” Vickie said. “None of us knew that.”

“Yeah. I think that, you know, even the health of Derrick; the health of Christine; my health; the chief of police, Ella Bully Cummings. It was so many people that were literally stressed to sickness in the positions in the city of Detroit,” Kilpatrick said.

Vickie Thomas is the City Beat Reporter for WWJ Newsradio 950. She was raised in Highland Park, “The City of Trees” — that was before the July 2, 1997 storm blew through the area. She covered the storm for WWJ that evening and the clean up over the...

One Comment

Does it matter what this guy does anymore? Why is he still in the media spotlight? Common Detroit and all news providers, stop giving this guy a voice in Detroit. Lets hear more from people who are trying to solve problems, not start them.

He is another reason the state of Michigan is trying to make it illigal for a convicted criminal to hold public office. He is not worthy of getting ANY attention from WWJ. It would be better to interview real Detroiters who are trying to clean up the mess he made.

I have forgiven. I do not need to forget. He can have a fresh start. But he has obligations that need to be respected and lived up to. I am speaking of the money he needs to pay back to the citizens of Detroit. A persons future is largely dictated by what he did in his past. Or a leopard really doesn’t change his spots. Even though Kwame may have a fresh start here, he will be looked at differently because of his past. Anyone having business dealings with him will do so under a cloud of suspicion. If Kwame is entrusted with the management of monies not his personal accounts you better believe the transactions will be scrutinized. Every move he makes will be put under a magnifying glass. For him to expect anything different is just plain dumb on his part.
Forgive and move past it he says.
Pay up we say.

Freedom of speech, it’s a great privilege that we Americans have and a lot of countries don’t. That’s what everyone is allowed to do on the topic today concerning our former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Everyone has an opinion and guess what, that’s all it is an opinion, whether you agree with it or not.

I just saw the story on the 10pm news of him talking at the church. I’m outraged that that many people still seem to worship him and think he really didn’t do anything wrong.

It’s unfortunate that KK is working his way back into politics, and that the people of the city of Detroit will be dumb enough to elect him again. They did it once already, and kept on electing Coleman Young.

Retirement can’t come fast enough so I could get out of this town…Detroit will never make a comeback as far as I’m concerned.